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chrispi avatar image
chrispi asked

Mppt 50/100 smart lost bluetooth after update to 1.6.3, how to reinstall firmware

Hi all,

I updated my 3 x 50/100 MPPT smart from 1.6.2 to 1.6.3. And update run fine but 2nd MPPT lost BT after update. its not showing up on the BT list of tablet or phone and doesn't connect via BT connect. Tried reseting by disconnecting both connections through input and output breakers for 1h and back on, BT stil not working but its operating fine.

The 2nd Mppt shows up under VRM I can see and also enter its setting. Turn on/off BT in its setting doesn't do anything too. It runs and operates fine as i can see via cerbo/VRM fine but BT is completely gone.

How can I reinstall firmware eg also via vrm on this one MPPT...the other identical 2 MPPT all work fine but 2nd MPPT is working fine but lost BT.

Thank you

Christian

MPPT SmartSolar
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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi @ChrisPI

Just to be clear: the MPPT without bluetooth does show the bluetooth on/off button when connecting via the Remote tab in VictronConnect? Even after power cycling it again?

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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chrispi avatar image chrispi Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·
@Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) yes it shows the BT button even after power cycling but BT seems to be completely gone. As described it’s in VRM and working but I don‘t get a BT signal shown via phone or tablet and BT connect doesn’t show it either.

is there a way I can update this MPPT again via VRM?

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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ chrispi commented ·

Hi @ChrisPI

Normally yes, but this (probably) will not help. There seems to be a problem with the internal BLE module (which is not updated when updating via VE.Direct). The fact that the BLE on/off switch is visible means that the internal communication with the dongle is possible, but somehow it does not provide any BLE signal.

A few more questions:

  1. Did you also perform the original update via VRM?
  2. And again just to be sure: the Bluetooth on/off switch is indeed in the on position?
  3. Could it be that the SmartSolar is visible under a different name in the VictronConnect local tab (something like VE.Direct Smart)

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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chrispi avatar image chrispi Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

@Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff).

1) update was done through BT connect, update went though without any message.

2) BT switch shows on position

3) none is under a different name. I only have 2 devices on the list of bT connect and they are not from me which is a 15/100 MPPT and smartshunt from boat next to me, also have non of this 2 products installed. tried anyway and cannot connect. My neighbor switch their BT off and they disappea. Also on BT list of tablet I cannot find MPPT or any other device with a different name. All appear as connected or available are known to me.

can you please provide me the update file 1.63 so I can do via vrm portal / device/ firmware update a manual update of that MPPT, looks to me the only way to fix that.

the update 1.6.3 also seem to reduce the BT range of the other MPPT. had before the update constant 4 of 5 bars at the navstation where an iPad is permanent installed running BT connect app + VRM portal and reception was stable, now after update 1 till 2 bars and reception unstable. Distance tablet to MPPTs/BP220 4m.
BP220 smart next to MPPT show stable 4 bars too, before and now. So nothing is inbetween that could disturb reception otherwise BP220 Smart would be low too.

i have another problem with the 3 MPPT: I cut them off with the BMS via remote port of BP220 smart in Li-Setting so I have the ve-direct port free to report to cerbo for monitoring. Have a BMV712 that‘s set as battery monitor in cerbo and DVCC on with voltage sense. they show the reference voltage from the BMV 712 during charging when BP220 connect them. that’s how mvader told me to connect them and switch DVCC and shared voltage on, so when BP220 disconnect the battery voltage is received via ve-direct.

But when BMS cuts them off because battery is full while there is enough sun then the MPPT stays for some sec on this shared reference voltage and then slowly raise voltage to 16,0V and stops and BP220 shows overvoltage with also 16,0V. At night when no solar input and I manually switch off the BP220 smart via BT Connect the 3 MPPT show the shared reference voltage of BMV eg 13.25V but the BP220 show 12.68V at input. So it looks like the voltage is shared and the MPPT receive it but don‘t take them into account= use them as managed voltage. No VE.smart network set up as that interferes with DVCC I Was told.

how do I fix that?

BMS is not connected to cerbo (Electrodacus BMS controlling all via remote ports) on purpose as I want it completely independent.

The BMV 712 delivers battery data to cerbo, MPPT receive via ve-direct the shared voltage. Cerbo is on top as pure monitoring and some home automation on top like Ruvvi tags for fridges, bilge warning or engine room temp On my catamaran.

thank you.



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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ chrispi commented ·

Hi @ChrisPI

Solar Charge Controller MPPT 100-50 SMART v1.63_A057.dup.zip

Attached is the update (normally they can be downloaded from Victron Professional, but due to other reasons, v1.63 is not available there). Although I doubt that it will work as the 1.63 update is only for the MPPT part and does nothing with the internal Bluetooth dongle part of the SmartSolar. My guess is that there is a hardware problem with the internal bluetooth dongle.

Regarding the other problem: There should be no need to disconnect the MPPTs when the battery is full. They should just stop charging based on the charge profile. Disconnecting them should only be necessary when they are actually overcharging the battery and the battery or BMS reports that chargers need to be disconnected and in that case, either the charge profile is wrong or there is actually a hardware problem with the MPPTs.

Regarding the voltage: where is the BMV712 connected? on the battery side of the BMS or on the MPPT side of the BMS? When it is on the battery side, the MPPTs will still received the data and because the BMV voltage stays the same but the MPPTs are disconnected from the battery, they will slowly raise their voltage because they still think there is a large voltage drop (which there actually is). I believe this is limited to 2V, to when the absorption voltage is 14.2V, they should actually go up to 16.2V.
Side note: The MPPTs will always report the voltage measured on their own battery connection and not the BMV voltage. When they receive a battery voltage via DVCC / VE.Smart networking they will adjust their output voltage to compensate for voltage drop.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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solar-charge-controller-mppt-100-50-smart-v163-a05.zip (46.1 KiB)
chrispi avatar image chrispi Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

@Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff):

update worked MPPT 2 is back on. updated manually and powercycled MPPT and bluetooth came back on.

THe electrodacus BMS has a different phylosophie and is the spider in the web that steers all, load and charge. The BMS has charge parameter that are valid for all charge source and a seperate End of charge parameter and if that is reached it switches of the charge source via remote (so on the low side). The parameter in the MPPT are 1st line of defence in case the end of charge fails. 2nd line of defense is then the BMS again with overvoltage disconnect. 3rd line of defence is then the overvoltage lock or desaster disconnect of BMS and independent last resort is the BMV712 (2nd input on midpoint monitoring, so it can dedect cell deviation too) with its relay output that disconnects all. Like this eg a MPPT cannot float a lifepo4 to death which it can but the standard BMS and also all victron BMS not noticing that.

The MPPT are on standard paramter 14.4V absorption and 13.8V float but the BMS cut off end of charge at 14.2V or 3,55V per cell.

The BMV712 is at the negative terminal of the battery bank. the load and charge shunts of the eletrodacus BMS are on the positive terminal connected, BMS measures exactly what comes in and what goes out of the bank. BMS monitoring and BMV 712/cerbo is spot on, +/- 1% SOC difference.

So if the bank is full at 14.2v the BMS shuts the BP220 with its remote off and disconnect the 3 MPPT. 2 MPPT are smart and 1 not.

If i disconnect the non-smart MPPT and only use BP220, BMV712 and the 2 smart MPPT and make a VE.Smart network with BMV suppling the voltage reference, the charge synchronization works as intend and told by vmader. THe BP220 disconnects the MPPT when still sun is avaliable and the MPPT stay at the battery voltage the BMV712 transfered via BT to the MPPT and also the BP220 shows exactly that reference voltage of BMV. no difference if during day or at night after cutoff by BP the BMV reference voltage is used. Voltage is not rising, even the output side of the 2 MPPT are disconnected via BP220.

Due to Mvader with DVCC and voltage share the same should happen so i can use the 3rd no-smart MPPT too. but it doesn't work, as desrcibed by you too the MPPT raise voltage because it wanna compensate the voltage drop during day. at night the output of MPPT show the reference value eg 13.25V but the BP shows 12.68V. Problem here is that if i get a lot solar input of >30A per MMPT and the BP220 cuts off the BP220 gets into overvoltage lock/short cuicuit and BMS is not able to switch on the BP220=charge again if battery is drained=charge on.

The same solution with BP220 cutting the charge bus via remote you can find in attached reference diagram for the VE-Bus BMS or the smart BMS. How is this problem solved here?

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/MultiPlus-II-3KW-120VAC-12VDC-400Ah-Li-VEBus-BMS-generator-MPPT-BMV-CCGX-Orion-Tr-Smarts-Lynx-distributor.pdf


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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ chrispi commented ·

Hi @ChrisPI

Good to hear that it works after the update and power cycle. I am quite surprised by this, but my guess would be that the extra power cycle fixed it.

>How is this problem solved here?
In this case, the battery protect should only disconnect when there is an actual problem with the battery and during regular charging it should not disconnect. When it does disconnect, it will probably also lead to an overvoltage when the MPPT charge voltage is set to 14.4V. When it is set to 14.2V, the MPPT output will be 16.2V maximum which is less than the overvoltage level of the battery protect.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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2 Answers
klim8skeptic avatar image
klim8skeptic answered ·

@ChrisPI It could be that the bluetooth "thinks" it is already connected, and not allowing a new connection.

It would be best to power down and restart. Disconnect PV then battery, wait 30 secs, reconnect battery then PV.

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chrispi avatar image
chrispi answered ·

@klim8skeptic i done that already, actually first thing i tried and no change.

But then you would be still visible on the list of BT devices at tablet or phone, you can just not connect to it. But BT is not visible anymore for MPPT2 on tablets or phone. Bt seams to be completely gone on MPPT2.

That's why how I do reinstall the 1.6.3 firmware again on the MPPT? Or a older one like 1.6.2 and then upgrade to 1.6.3 comes up automatically.


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